


Hidden SHIELD

by GohanRoxas



Series: Earth-4652 [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Black Widow (Comics), DCU (Comics), Marvel 616, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Explicit Language, Gun Violence, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 22:06:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12897810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GohanRoxas/pseuds/GohanRoxas
Summary: Gotham City. Home to the worst of the worst. But also the best of the best. The Batman watches over the streets like a guardian in the night. But tonight was unlike any other. An escapee from a powerful organization, a pair of crime-lords on a mission, a highly-skilled spy and assassin, and a growing body-count that even he can't rein in.This was going to be a long night.





	Hidden SHIELD

**Author's Note:**

> Hoo boy. This is the beginning of my most ambitious project yet. Welcome...to Earth-4652.
> 
> Yeah, this is gonna be crazy. Let's hope I can actually go through with this mad idea of combining the main universes of DC and Marvel to make some unique stories of all kinds.
> 
> And look at that! No shipping!

People often forgot that he didn’t always just deal with maniacs and supervillains. When he appeared from the shadows to beat down a common bank-robber, it was always a surprise to them, almost as much as it was a shock to the robber himself.

But there he would be, beating a common thief down enough to be nice and docile when the GCPD arrived with a squad car and a pair of handcuffs. And there he would go, as soon as someone turned their back to him.

Of course, he stood over the scene to make sure all went as it should have before moving on to the next crime in progress, or if he’d felt he’d done enough, return home.

But he would never do enough in one night. The Batman doesn’t stop.

Grim thoughts were interrupted by a familiar, short chirp coming from his cowl. Without a visible reaction, he raised two fingers and tapped where his ear would be. “Alfred,” he muttered, voice still modulated from his encounter with the thug. “What’s the update?”

_ “Well, sir,” _ the familiar, drawling British voice came, tone full of concern and respect.  _ “The Batcomputer has been picking up two separate calls of a break-in at ACE Chemicals.” _

“Two separate calls?”

_ “Indeed. Evidently a group of men in clown masks broke down the back door, armed as you would expect and are now rummaging through the building.” _

“…Joker,” Batman growled.

_ “Astute as always, Master Bruce,”  _ Alfred drawled.  _ “However, I’m picking up a second, separate call about one man entering the building. Through the front door. Alone. And more armed than a small army.” _

“Did the report get a description?”

_ “Only a partial one, sir. His face was obscured by shadows, but they knew he was wearing a long brown coat and is, as I mentioned, sir, heavily armed.” _

He’d already begun moving on the rooftop, pushing a handful of buttons on his arm to summon the Batwing. “I’m already on my way.”

* * *

ACE Chemicals was a hive of activity, usually of the criminal sort. And tonight was no different. Outside the large factory was a plethora of emergency vehicles – a handful of firetrucks, some ambulances, primarily police cruisers – and more bodies than a typical fundraiser. Workers were being treated for minor injuries and shock, but Commissioner Gordon wasn’t too interested in them at this point. He’d gotten the information he needed out of them, and now his focus was on the factory and the situation inside…

Though judging by the massive number of gunshots that rang out just as he arrived, the situation had already subsided.

“Jim.” The voice was quiet, gravelly, familiar. He was so used to it at this point. But it still scared him shitless every damn time. He jumped slightly and turned, face grumpy.

“Dammit, Batman, I’m an old man at this point. Too many of your spook-tricks and I’ll end up in the hospital…again.”

“What’s the situation?” Batman replied, his sympathies implied in a minutiae of movements that few could read.

Gordon grumbled. “Not much of one at the moment. Waiting on an all-clear to enter the building right now. Apparently some kind of gunfight broke out just as we got here, but it ended before we could get the chance to go in. When we tried, well…” He looked at an ambulance to the side, where paramedics were treating an officer’s leg, a substantial gunshot wound in his shin. “Warning shot, meant to deter anyone getting in unless they want them in. If you’re going in, Batman, you’d better use that—“ And when he’d turned around, his cowled companion was long gone. “…Goddammit, I hate it when he does that.”

* * *

The inside of ACE Chemicals was always a nightmare, but it was moreso tonight. Joining the normal graffiti of laughter, clowns and curses was sprays of coagulating red, covering the walls and floors. Bodies garbed in clown costumes and make-up were strewn all across the concrete floor, some propped up where they fell, others dropped to the ground spread-eagled. All of them had something in common: multiple gunshot wounds, chest and head. Precision shots. The headshots were either in the centre of the forehead or just to the side, the chest wounds were focused on the heart.

“Whoever did this is a professional,” Batman murmured to himself. “Military-trained, maybe a sharpshooter.”

_ “Sniper shots, perhaps?” _ Alfred’s voice came over the comm, a frequent thing when the pace of their endeavors slowed to the pace of a Christie novel.

“No. This wasn’t that precise. Pistols, SMGs, maybe a rifle.” He looked around. “This wasn’t assassination, it was murder.”

_ “Perhaps it was our mysterious one-man army, sir.” _

“My thoughts exactly, Alfred.”

The room was suddenly filled with a muffled, echoing, familiarly horrifying noise. Maniacal laughter. Something he had heard hundreds of times before. In person and in his mind.

Joker.

But something was...off. The laugh was cut off in a gurgle, the sound of a man choking. Being strangled.

He immediately pulled his grappling hook from his belt and shot it onto a walkway, following it into the next room…

...where he found the source of the problem.

Alfred’s “one-man army” was there, holding a .44 Magnum under the chin of the horrifying, rictus-branded face of the Joker, who was giggling right in the man’s face. More bodies were strewn across the floor, including a giant of a man with his head literally caved in by blows. Beside him was a rifle, the butt of which was bloodied and covered in brain matter. It wasn’t hard to work out what had happened to him.

“Hahahahahaha!” Joker laughed maniacally, the sound cut off as the brown-coated man pushed the Magnum more into his throat. “Just in time, Bats! Your friend here started the party ahead of time, but at least the guest of honour’s punctual!”

“Shut it, clown.” The line didn’t come from Joker’s nemesis, but the man with the gun to his neck. His voice was a low drawl, words deliberate, long and quiet. The sound of a man totally at peace with the dark deeds he commits.

“Don’t,” Batman shouted shortly, hand lifting slightly. “Killing isn’t the way.”

“Worked for me before,” the man muttered. “Why should I stop now?”

“Heehee, I like this guy, Batsy!” Joker grinned, pointing at the side of the military man’s head. “Willing to do what I’ve been wanting you to do for years now!”

The man turned his head slightly to look behind him, directly at Batman. “If you’re no fan of killing, you’d better look away now.”

“Ooh, that’s pretty good,” the clown complimented, his rictus turned to his nemesis. “Finally, a goody-two-shoes who gets the joke!”

The man in the brown coat stepped back and pressed the tip of the gun barrel to the clown’s forehead. “Joke’s on you.”

“Don’t!” The Batman’s normally calm voice became a shout of panic--

**_BOOM!_ **

The whole place became a macabre Pollock. The Joker’s forehead exploded into dark red blood, his face caving in from the sheer force of a point-blank shot from one of the most powerful guns in the world. The gun became covered in crimson and brain matter, and the Joker’s body went limp, collapsing to the floor. His head was practically gone...the only thing left was that mad grin, still plastered on what remained of the Clown Prince of Crime.

The man turned around and dropped the gun to the floor. His face was covered in the Joker’s blood, but it was calm. An icy, latent rage burned in his eyes, enough to even chill the caped man before him. He carried himself like a Marine, a dedicated veteran who had seen the darkness of humanity one too many times.

And upon his chest, emblazoned and painted white on a custom-made Kevlar vest, was a skull, its three teeth elongated monstrously.

The Punisher held up his arms, hands loosely closed as he looked at the Batman. “Guess this is the part where you take me in.”

Batman’s eyes beneath the cowl  _ blazed _ with his own, barely-contained anger.

* * *

The girl was a gift from Penguin. A gift for his loyalty. He’d been working at the Iceberg Lounge since it opened, five years ago. Not once did he stray. Not when Joker arrived, not when Dent started flipping his coin everywhere, not even when Ra’s al Ghul threatened to destroy everything.

Cobblepot must have adored Larry to gift him this night. The girl was new to Gotham, part of a trade agreement with some big fish in New York City. A Russian immigrant, thick accent and all.

“Never caught your name, sweet-cheeks,” he leered, his belt already loose.

“...Natuska,” the Russian muttered, her dark hair blocking her eyes slightly. She looked nervous, but her body wasn’t the typical emaciated you’d see of the girls in Gotham. Hers was full, curvaceous...enticing.

“Natu-what?” Larry laughed lecherously. “I’ll just call you Nat. Not that I’m gonna use your name all that much.”

“Call me what?” Natuska mumbled, curling into herself.

“Oh, ya know, the usual. Slut. Whore. Russian bitch.”

If it was possible, Natuska shrunk into herself even more. She didn’t even flinch from him when he pulled her close.

“Wh-what you do? For...for penguin-man?” she stammered, panic in her eyes.

“Me?” And here went Loose-Lips Larry again. “I’m the info guy. Ain’t nothin’ that happens in Gotham I don’t know about, then I tell it to the boss. Like tonight.” He grinned, the expression slimy and terrifying. “Heard that that psycho the Joker kicked the bucket.”

“Joker?”

“Yeah, fancied himself the Batman’s greatest enemy or somethin’.” He laughed. “Some newbie blew his fuckin’ head off and got grabbed by Batman right after.”

“New…?”

“Shit, you’re full of questions, ain’t you?” Larry laughed again. “Military guy, got given over to the Commisioner or somethin’. Name was...Mansion or somethin’.”

“Castle?”

He clicked his fingers. “That was it! Castle! Frank Castle!” He turned away and started gesturing around. “Yeah, stupid sunofabitch wants to go to war with--”

Before he could say anything more, his airwaves were cut off. The garrote wire wrapped around his neck stopped the words - and his air - dead in their tracks and he began spluttering. “Wh-w-what…?”

It was Natuska. Her eyes blazed with an unnatural, calm fire. “Thank you. For your co-operation.” The thick accent was gone, replaced by a very thin one that sounded more American than Russian. Natuska tugged harder on the wire and--

Larry’s neck snapped, his head tilting unnaturally as he fell. The wire had been so taut on his neck that blood had started to drip from the cut it had left.

The Russian woman reached up and shifted her dark hair…

...pulling off the wig and shaking out her vibrant red locks. She lifted her wrist to her mouth and pushed a button. “I’m on Castle’s trail. Going dark until I find him. Out.” Lowering her hand, she grabbed what was once Larry’s coat and sunglasses, put them on and walked out the door.

The Black Widow was in Gotham City. And she wasn’t going to leave until she found what she was looking for.


End file.
